Many know the story of Abraham: a father asked by God to sacrifice his long-awaited son to prove his ultimate allegiance. Like a coercive partner, God manipulates him: "You’d do it if you really loved me." Abraham prepares for the dreadful act, but an angel stays his hand at the last second. He passes the test.
I was inspired to paint this scene for two reasons. First, as part of my ongoing project to retell myths and legends by centering queer and POC subjects—the identities of my models—who are often excluded from historical art narratives.
Second, I am horrified by the tightening of anti-LGBTQ+ laws in several African countries. Tragically, some parents throw out or hand over their LGBTQ+ children to police to face brutality and jail. Why? To prove allegiance to their God. Driven by certain biblical interpretations, they sacrifice their children. Yet, no angel appears to stop it. These children (young or grown) are not saved in the nick of time; many are brutalised or killed.
Initially, my choice of model for the Angel was ethnicity-non-specific (do divine beings have an ethnicity?) but as I mused on the topic I realised the model's whiteness perfectly symbolises how anti-LGBTQ+ laws and dogma were imported across the globe through the dual forces of missionary colonialism. These countries could now act, having repealed these laws themselves, to mitigate the harm they introduced.
I chose to reject traditional artistic drapery; the shame of nudity stems from the conflation of bodies with sin, which has no place here.
